MSU student Brian Fraser remembered for good nature, zest for life

Grosse Pointe Farms — Michigan State sophomore Brian Fraser was remembered as a charismatic, good-natured young man with a zest for life at his funeral Mass Saturday.

"Brian was suddenly and violently taken from us," said Pastor Jim Bilot, who conducted the Mass at St. Paul on the Lake Catholic Church in Grosse Pointe Farms.

The 20-year-old was one of three students killed during the Feb. 13 shooting at his school.

"That night, when everything was just day to day, going about what we do. All of a sudden in an instant it all changed. ... Brian was just doing his job, his life was taken."

Fraser was known as a charismatic, smiling and humorous young man who was hard to not like. He chose to live life with kindness, respect and courtesy, Bilot said.

He will be remembered for "his goofiness of wanting to just enjoy life and be with family and to be at parties to gather around people," Bilot said.

Bilot said he and Brian's father, Sean Fraser, had wanted to see Brian walk down his church's isle with a beautiful bride on his arm one day.

Family and friends in the Grosse Pointe community packed the church for his funeral mass instead, leaving standing room only.

Fraser grew up in Grosse Pointe Park and attended St. Paul on the Lake Catholic School and Grosse Pointe South High School, according to his obituary. He was an athlete and competed on the swimming and diving teams at Grosse Pointe South High School and the Country Club of Detroit.

"He was very athletic, very competitive," Bilot said. "I heard he wasn't always that great in his sports, but he certainly loved being a part of the team and he always contributed to making it a good sporting event."

He also worked as a lifeguard for five years and was president of the Michigan Beta Chapter of Phi Delta Theta at MSU, according to his obituary. He was studying business in college.

Bilot noted that Fraser's organs were donated. "Somebody has new veins, new arteries, somebody has tissue that they can see or have a better way but most beautifully ... those beautiful blue eyes, somebody else will be able to see the world anew."

Some of his friends at MSU started a fundraiser on Tuesday to support his family and raised over $32,000 as of Saturday morning. At the funeral, Bilot encouraged Fraser's classmates, friends and fraternity brothers to go back to MSU with determination and confidence to effect change.

"We can be fearful but not to the point that we won’t move forward," Bilot said.

A funeral service for 20-year-old Alexandria Verner of Clawson and a vigil for 19-year-old Arielle Anderson of Harper Woods were also held Saturday. Five other students critically injured in the attack remain in Sparrow Hospital and one has improved to a stable condition so far.

The gunman, a 43-year-old Lansing man, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he was confronted by police early Tuesday morning, approximately four hours after the shooting began. MSU's classes were canceled for the rest of the week and are scheduled to resume Monday.